Difference between digital printing and offset printing
Image courtesy: Bank Phrom (Unsplash)
With the rise of self publishing, book printing industry too has seen significant changes.
Earlier, traditional publishers used to get books printed in the traditional manner i.e. offset printing. In offset printing process, a minimum of 1000 copies are printed to keep the economies of printing cost low. Ideally, a print job under offset model would be about 2000-10,000 copies. This huge stock of copies needs to be stored, distributed and maintained for quality.
The traditional model of book selling involves the following stakeholders-
- Author
- Publisher
- Book Distributor
- Bookstore
- Buyer
There is a need to keep the printing cost low so that each player gets a suitable share from book sale. Before ecommerce channels took over the reign of sales online, all books’ sales happened through bookstores only. Books were printed in bulk and distributed by book distributors to nooks and corners of the country. Bookstores generally return the unsold inventory to distributors and thus to publishers. If the copies did not sell, the extra stock was a loss for the publisher. As books kept in warehouses for long lead to deterioration in paper due to moisture, pests, etc. With the advent of self publishing, digital printing also saw increased interest. In digital printing, you can print even a single copy. Most self publishers and now even many traditional publishers follow the digital printing route. The reason is – it offers many benefits –
- Minimal investment in printing and
- No need to manage bulk inventory
- Reduced storage space
- Less wastage of paper – print when and how much is required
- Less time taken to bring the book to market – printing a few copies takes lesser time than printing 1000s
- Any revisions to the books can be easily implemented as the stock printed each time is less
As the no. of mediators involved in the selling process reduce, authors can earn more profits with a better sales reporting. As each sale is tracked online, the process becomes beneficial for both authors and publishers.
From the Director's desk
Navsangeet Kaur